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Scottish Dubliner Posted Tue 27 Jan, 2009 1:13 PM |
Touchy subject I know but...
For the first time I have actually heard someone in the media mention all the other victims who weren't Jews. For example Homosexuals, Muslims, etc.
I would like to see it changed to World Genocide Day to include victims of all attrocities all over the world. For example Uganda, Bosnia, Argentina, Mogadishu, etc., etc.
Dubz
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mili Posted Tue 27 Jan, 2009 1:18 PM |
| Sounds like a good idea. If the holocaust day needs to be kept, then the other genocides "deserve" a day of their own. |
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Rammsfer Posted Tue 27 Jan, 2009 2:58 PM |
| Good Idea! |
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kiwi Posted Tue 27 Jan, 2009 3:03 PM |
I agree... I think because the Nazi Holocaust was so systematic and organised people tend to forget that other atrocities occurred, and are still occurring...
An interesting BBC discussion about whether or not Auschwitz should be maintained or allowed to decay... |
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I Came in Through the Bathroom Window Posted Tue 27 Jan, 2009 3:15 PM |
I didn't know it was Holocaust Day today but I agree it should be changed to World Genocide Day.
We do have a date to commemorate the Argentinian genocide that happened in the 70s. It's 24th march, in reference to 24th march 1976, the day when the Armed Forces leaded the last coup d'état and started the genocide.
But I think there should be a day for all the world to commemorate genocides, no matter when or where they happened.
This is a digression, but coincidentally I'm studying genocide right now, trying to put up the theoretical framework for a research I'm doing about people who live in the surroundings of a building that was used as a concentration camp in the 70s in Buenos Aires. Half of the people we interviewed lived there while it was a concentration camp, half of them didn't. We're trying to see what's their "symbolic appropriation" of the building and of the genocide.
The interviews went really well, we've got some very interesting material to work on.
My English is terrible when trying to talk about this kind of things, sorry! |
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I Came in Through the Bathroom Window Posted Tue 27 Jan, 2009 3:27 PM |
kiwi wrote: I agree... I think because the Nazi Holocaust was so systematic and organised people tend to forget that other atrocities occurred, and are still occurring...
I think most, if not all genocides were systematic and organised. But it's true that the Shoa has a special meaning, because it started a new type of genocide. |
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weirdmom Posted Tue 27 Jan, 2009 3:49 PM |
Juli your English is fine. More than fine actually.
I'm curious to hear more about these interviews - especially those who lived around the area when it was a concentration camp.
When I have read or seen interviews with Germans who lived around the camps you hear a lot "I didn't know." Are they saying similar things?
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frandougeil Posted Tue 27 Jan, 2009 4:05 PM |
I Came in Through the Bathroom Window wrote: I didn't know it was Holocaust Day today but I agree it should be changed to World Genocide Day.
I didn't know too..But i agree that it should be changed to World Genocide Day.Exactly coz of what Juli mentioned below..
I Came in Through the Bathroom Window wrote: But I think there should be a day for all the world to commemorate genocides, no matter when or where they happened.
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I Came in Through the Bathroom Window Posted Tue 27 Jan, 2009 4:35 PM |
weirdmom wrote: Juli your English is fine. More than fine actually.
I'm curious to hear more about these interviews - especially those who lived around the area when it was a concentration camp.
When I have read or seen interviews with Germans who lived around the camps you hear a lot "I didn't know." Are they saying similar things?
They are. However, this building is in the middle of the city, and even though the military had blocked streets around the building, there's no way that if you lived across the street you wouldn't know something.
Some of the people we interviewed contradict themselves, that's intereseting. For example, one man told me that he found out about this place when he was abroad, in 1978, according to him "once it wasn't being used as a concentation camp anymore". However, the fact is that in 1978 it was still a concentration camp.
There's this guy who lives right across the street, and he walled up a window back then because of "disturbing noises", but he refuses to talk about it.
The windows of the concentration camp were walled up as well, but they have a gap on the top that has grilles. The rooms with those windows were used as prisioners' cells and a torture room. Some neighbours admit they could hear screams and loud music (the military used to play loud music during "interrogations" so the screams wouldn't be heard that much), or see vans coming in or out at night. Some say that they wanted to move out, but they were forced to stay in the neighbourhood.
We got very interesting reactions when we asked them to identify the place. It's known as the Olympus (everyone calls it that way, even though the building is over 100 years old and it was used as a concentration camp for only 2 years), because the military considered themselves as gods who had power over the life and death of the prisioners, so there was a poster in the torture room that said "Welcome to the Olympus of the gods".
Anyway, we showed the interviewed people a picture of the front of the building and asked them if they knew what it was. Most neighbours called it that way (the Olympus), some of them after remaining silent for a long while. Some of them had trouble identifying it, even though it's a huge building that occupies a whole block and they could see it from their own doors. Some of them called it "that big thing that's in the corner".
Ahh, I'm talking too much, sorry! It's really fascinating, at least for me :oP. We did 26 interviews, I don't want to bore you even more :oP |
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I Came in Through the Bathroom Window Posted Tue 27 Jan, 2009 4:39 PM |
| Ooops! I didn't know I had written that much, SORRY!! |
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weirdmom Posted Tue 27 Jan, 2009 4:48 PM |
No Juli it's really interesting, at least to me.
And sad. And horrifying.
How did you get these people to talk to you in the first place? |
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I Came in Through the Bathroom Window Posted Tue 27 Jan, 2009 5:29 PM |
weirdmom wrote: No Juli it's really interesting, at least to me.
And sad. And horrifying.
How did you get these people to talk to you in the first place?
I know, it's horrifying. It was very hard to me when we visited the ex concentration camp. Being there was quite shocking.
It's all part of a seminar I did last year (we have to complete the research). The professors had contacted some of the people beforehand, so we just went to see them and introduced ourselves as students from the University of Buenos Aires. And in some cases we had to go knocking on doors or get in shops and ask people if they wanted to participate. We had delimited the area that we were interested in, so it had to be someone who fulfilled all the requirements.
We were in groups of 2 and we had to do four interviews per group: two to people who lived there in the 70s and two who didn't.
My partner and I spent like 2 hours trying to find a person that had lived there for over 30 years and wanted to be interviewed. It wasn't easy. |
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hennypenny Posted Tue 27 Jan, 2009 10:37 PM |
Scottish Dubliner wrote:
Touchy subject I know but...
For the first time I have actually heard someone in the media mention all the other victims who weren't Jews. For example Homosexuals, Muslims, etc.
I would like to see it changed to World Genocide Day to include victims of all attrocities all over the world. For example Uganda, Bosnia, Argentina, Mogadishu, etc., etc.
Dubz
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Nell Posted Tue 27 Jan, 2009 11:19 PM |
Didn't the pope just yesterday or so reengage 3 priests that were thrown out of service before- one of them because he had denied the holocaust ever happened?
He still does deny that - but the pope just doesn't care...
Isn't it even illegal to say that? |
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I Came in Through the Bathroom Window Posted Tue 27 Jan, 2009 11:23 PM |
Nell wrote:
Didn't the pope just yesterday or so reengage 3 priests that were thrown out of service before- one of them because he had denied the holocaust ever happened?
He still does deny that - but the pope just doesn't care...
Isn't it even illegal to say that?
I can't say I'm surprised by that! |
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